Before the 2022 midterm election, most political pundits expected a “red wave” in which the GOP would emerge with a resounding majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and a narrow victory in the U.S. Senate.
Of course, three weeks after the election, we know that the Republican-led red wave did not come to pass.
However, there absolutely was a “red” wave in the 2022 midterm election because socialists, who long ago made red one of the principal symbols of their collectivist revolution, won the overwhelming majority of the state and federal offices they ran in.
In fact, as a new report by The Heartland Institute’s Socialism Research Center (SRC) shows, socialist candidates won a whopping 120 of the 132 races in which they ran. In other words, socialist candidates were victorious in more than 90 percent of the elections they participated in last month.
According to the report, titled “Socialist Watch 2022: An Analysis of Socialist Candidates in the 2022 Midterm Election,” “The biggest takeaway from our research is that the far-left progressive and socialist wings of the Democratic Party continue to gain significant ground at both the federal and state levels of government, following similar trends in the 2018 and 2020 elections.”
All 132 of the socialist candidates listed in the report were endorsed by Our Revolution, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and/or the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), three of the most influential socialist organizations in the United States.
Specifically, the 132 socialist candidates ran for elections in 26 states, including 78 state-level positions, 50 U.S. House seats, and four U.S. Senate seats.
Per the report, “If uncontested races and losses are excluded, socialist or far-left progressive candidates won by an average of more than 30 percentage points. This clearly indicates socialist and progressive groups targeted districts they assumed Democrats would win in the general election, rather than sponsoring candidates and investing resources in elections that would be more difficult to win during the general election. In the 12 races socialist candidates lost, their margin of defeat (-9.8 percent) was more than three times less than the aforementioned margin of victory.”
Interestingly, the 2022 midterm election analysis of socialist candidates shows eerily similar results to socialists’ performance at the ballot box in 2020. Moreover, it shows that socialists have made stunning progress since their red renaissance began in 2018.
In 2018, the SRC identified 86 socialist candidates running for statewide and federal office. That year, socialists won less than half of those races. In 2020, the number of socialists running in the general election ballooned to 266. And, unlike in 2018, the vast majority (90 percent) won their races.
Although the total number of socialists on the ballot in 2022 was less than it was in 2020, the winning percentage for socialists remained almost exactly the same, just north of 90 percent, which, “clearly indicates that socialists continue to reap great rewards at the ballot box and that socialist organizations are pragmatically targeting Democratic bastions to replace ‘establishment’ Democrats with radical socialists.”
Perhaps most concerning of all is that young Americans, who turned out in record numbers for the 2022 midterm election, clearly favor socialism. Apparently, the long-term socialist strategy of capturing the major institutions—namely academia, the media, Hollywood, and social media—is beginning to pay off at the polls.
In fact, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a self-avowed socialist, was enamored with the 2022 midterm election results, in which socialists continue to occupy more and more elected offices throughout the United States.
“Without the major turnout of younger voters, we would have seen a very different outcome in last night’s elections,” Sanders tweeted. Yes, Bernie, this is indeed true. Had young voters not shown up in droves and pulled the lever for far-left socialists, we might have seen a very different type of red wave.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is a senior editor at The Heartland Institute.
